LUCKNOW: Amidst angry protests and allegations of corruption, slackness and negligence levelled by the residents of three villages in the grip of HIV infliction, Chief Medical Superintendent Dr PK Dohre of Bangaramau Community Health Centre (CHC) was transferred on late Thursday evening. Dr Dohre had to face villagers ire during a visit to Prem Ganj village along with a team of UP Aids Control Society (UPSACS) officials on Wednesday.

Prem Ganj is one of the three villages the residents of which have tested positive for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) last month. Confirming the transfer, CMO Unnao Dr S P Chowdhary said, “CMS Dr P K Dohre has been transferred to Oonchgaon Community Health Centre of the district and ACMO Jairam Singh has been appointed in his place,” he added.

Notably, the strains of HIV had emerged in the residents of Prem Ganj, Kareemuddin Nagar and Chakmeera villages of Bagnarmau tehsil in Unnao district in July last year during a routine screening, when 12 people tested positive for the virus from Prem Ganj alone. Another 13 persons tested positive during another round of screening in November, last year in the same villages. In January end this year, the state government AIDS Control body screened 566 more people, of whom 33 gave confirmed positive results. Five more persons reacted positive to HIV.

However, the Bangarmau residents had held Dr Dohre responsible for lack of facilities, medical apathy and corruption prevalent among doctors at Banagrmau CHC owing to which, they claimed, they were pushed to resort to the quack who gave them the deadly infection by using the same syringe to inject all the patients.

Among the 58 people of Unnao district who had been found infected with HIV, 25 so far referred to anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centre in Kanpur. They have been counselled by the doctors and are currently on medication.

Doctors at the centre after doing the registration have also taken the case study of all these patients. Blood samples of all these HIV positive cases were sent for CD4 count test. Moreover, those coming to ART centre for treatment were also being counselled. Besides, the therapy, these patients need a lot of moral support to fight the pain and the stigma attached to the disease,” said Dr Chaman Vanwani of ART Centre. He added that all the patients were being closely monitored and were getting the anti-retroviral therapy properly.

Dealing with quacks active in rural areas of the state was a big challenge, Dr Vanwani felt and he added that such unchecked use of reused, unsterilized syringes for administering injections or even blood transfusion left the illiterate and unaware population vulnerable to deadly infection.

“The issue needs an urgent attention. The number of people contracting the virus due to infected syringes is rising at an alarming rate, especially in rural areas," he added.

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